When disaster strikes, Tina Fey is no hero, she tells The New Yorker. She discovered this shameful fact during the anthrax postal attacks in October 2001, when she was a writer for Saturday Night Live. “I was sitting in my tiny dressing room at Rockefeller Plaza, looking for something funny to say about Afghanistan, the Taliban, Saddam Hussein. It was grim.” Then she saw a bulletin on TV: “Anthrax has been found at Rockefeller Plaza. CDC officials are investigating a suspicious package addressed to Tom Brokaw.’’
Her first instinct was to flee the NBC building as quickly as possible. “I put on my coat, walked downstairs past my friends and co-workers without saying anything. I walked right past the host for that week, sweet Drew Barrymore, without telling her what I heard. Then I walked home and waited to die.” Hours later, her boss, Lorne Michaels, tracked her down. “Lorne called and said gently, ‘We’re all here. You and Drew are the only ones who left. And Drew came back a few hours ago. We’re ordering dinner, if you want to come back in.’ It was the kindest way of saying, ‘You’re embarrassing yourself.’”
Subscribe to The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Trinidadian doubles recipeThe Week Recommends 'Dangerously addictive', this traditional Caribbean street food is the height of finger-licking goodness
-
Labour and the so-called 'banter ban'Talking Point Critics are claiming that a clause in the new Employment Rights Bill will spell the end of free-flowing pub conversation
-
Andor series two: a 'perfect' Star Wars showThe Week Recommends Second instalment of Tony Gilroy's 'compelling' spin-off is a triumph
